Online dating is a minefield that can feel especially treacherous for marginalised groups, so it’s great to hear that Bumble is coming down hard on all forms of body-shaming.
At the end of January, the women-first dating app updated its terms and conditions to “explicitly ban unsolicited and derogatory comments made about someone’s appearance, body shape, size, or health”.
According to Bumble, this “includes language that can be deemed fat-phobic, ableist, racist, colorist, homophobic or transphobic”.
Research conducted by Bumble found that one in four Brits have experienced some form of body-shaming on dating apps or social media. One in two said that someone they have dated has “made an unsolicited comment about their body either in person or online”.
The new rules will be enforced using automatic safeguards and human moderators. Once the app detects a term that appears to be body-shaming, a Bumble moderator will review it.
Users found to have broken the rules will be given a warning and directed to resources encouraging them to improve their behaviour. Especially offensive and persistent rule-breakers will be banned from the app.
“At Bumble, we have always been clear on our mission to create a kinder, more respectful and more equal space on the internet,” said Bumble’s head of UK and Ireland Naomi Walkland.
“Key to this has always been our zero-tolerance policy for racist and hate-driven speech, abusive behaviour and harassment.We believe in being explicit when it comes to the kind of behaviour that is not welcome on our app and with these changes, we’re making it clear that body-shaming is not acceptable on Bumble.”
Walkland added: “We always want to lead with education and give our community a chance to learn to recognise this language and improve. However, we will not hesitate to permanently remove someone from the app if there are repeated incidents or particularly harmful comments.”
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